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Characterization and Genomic Analysis of Escherichia coli O157:H7 Bacteriophage FEC14, a New Member of Genus Kuttervirus

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Abstract

Escherichia coli O157:H7 is an important foodborne pathogen that has become a major worldwide factor affecting the public safety of food. Bacteriophage has gradually attracted attention because of its ability to kill specific pathogens. In this study, a lytic phage of E. coli O157:H7, named FEC14, was isolated from hospital sewage. Transmission electron microscopy analysis showed that phage FEC14 had an isometric head 80 ± 5 nm in diameter and a contractile tail whose terminal spikes present an umbrella-like structure. Phage FEC14 revealed 158,639 bp double-stranded DNA, with the G+C content of 44.6%, 209 ORFs and four tRNAs. Genome DNA of FEC14 could not be digested by some endonucleases. Many of the features of phage FEC14 are very similar to those of the newly classified genus “Kuttervirus”, including morphology, genome size and organization, etc. Phage FEC14 is proposed to be a new isolate of genus “Kuttervirus” within the family Ackermannviridae, moreover, the endonuclease resistance of phage FEC14, has priority over other genera of bacteriophages for its use in biocontrol of foodborne pathogens.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Yanbo Sun (Department of Pathogenobiology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University) for constructive comments. This reseach was supported by a grant from Health Comission of Jilin Province (No. 2020J032).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathogenobiology, College of Basic Medical Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, People’s Republic of China

    Congcong Fan, Dandan Tie, Yanbo Sun, Jie Jiang, Honglan Huang & Chunyan Zhao

  2. Changchun Center for Disease Control and Prevention Department of Microbiology, Changchun, Jilin, People’s Republic of China

    Yunwei Gong

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  1. Congcong Fan
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  2. Dandan Tie
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Correspondence to Chunyan Zhao.

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Fan, C., Tie, D., Sun, Y. et al. Characterization and Genomic Analysis of Escherichia coli O157:H7 Bacteriophage FEC14, a New Member of Genus Kuttervirus. Curr Microbiol 78, 159–166 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-020-02283-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-020-02283-x

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